Q: What is Twitter?
A: Twitter
is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and
stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People
write short updates, often called "tweets" of 140 characters or fewer.
These messages are posted to your profile, sent to
your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.
Q: What is a hashtag?
A: A
hashtag is added to make a tweet searchable in a specific category. For
example, in this instance the hashtag is < #sawxreport >. When a
hashtag is used, each tweet that has the #sawxreport hashtag will be found
when the public search for weather reports, observations or general weather information. Without this hashtag, it
will not be found by the public or SAWXREP.
Q: What is Geo-tagging?
A: Geo-tagging is like GPS for your
tweet. When you turn on your location on your twitter profile, a 3rd
party application can geo-tag your tweet with the location from which it
was sent. Geo-tagging, allows tweets to have a hidden latitude and
longitude. Once the tweet is geo-tagged it can then be plotted on a
map.
Q: How do I know if my tweet is Geo-tagged?
A: If your phone has GPS, it likely has
the capability to geo-tag a tweet sent from a 3rd party application.
If you are unsure if your phone has GPS capability, check your mobile
phone instruction manual. If you are using a personal computer, you
will still need a 3rd party application that has the capability to send
geo-tagged tweets. Geo-tagging cannot be accomplished by simply sending
a tweet from the Twitter.com website, the m.twitter.com (mobile)
website or via text message. This must occur through a 3rd party
application.
Q: What is a 3rd party application?
A: A 3rd
party application is software that you can download on your data capable
mobile phone or on your personal computer. A 3rd party application
compatible with your phone or PC can be found by doing a simple web
search. Make sure the 3rd party application you choose has the
capability to geo-tag tweets.
Q: How do I know if my tweet's location was properly coded?
A: Check
on the twitter search using #sawxreport #sawxob or #saweather to see if the report is listed.
If you use geo-tagging, you'll need to check to see if your latitude
and longitude have any extra information with them. To do this, do a
twitter search for near [your location] For example: #sawxreport near "Mossel Bay", your latitude and longitude location will be below the tweet.
Q: Will SAWXREP reply to my tweet?
A: In some instances SAWXREP will reply to your tweet sent. This is to obtain further information or confirmation.
Q: Why
is SAWXREP only searching for reports sent via Twitter and not from
other micro-blogging services (e.g., FriendFeed, Tumblr)?
A: Only one
micro-blogging service is being used at this time. Already a
well-established social media outlet, Twitter's user-base exceeds other
micro-blogging services at this time. This affords this project, a
large audience of users already familiar with Twitter. As the market environment for micro-blogging
services evolves, SAWXREP will consider the benefits of making use of
additional micro-blogging services or revisiting the choice of a
particular service.
Q: How can I make use of the Weather Tweets that SAWXREP is collecting?
A:
You can view weather report Tweets that are currently available. The
following external (non-SAWXREP) links will monitor #sawxreport #saweather #sawxob tweets (click
the links below):
